A corpse that weeps tears of blood. A man who survives a leap off a skyscraper. A woman who feels the physical torture of a person far away. A bratwurst shot by an officer. No, these are not puzzles from Unsolved Mysteries, but elements of even odder Friday shows. Indeed, with the addition of Fox's Strange Luck and CBS' American Gothic, Friday has become a haven for offbeat and unsettling shows that might shrivel up and die in the spotlight of prime time's other evenings.
The newcomers are following the lead of TV's Prince of Darkness, The X-Files. In its third season, the Fox occult hit will pit FBI paranormal investigators Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) against such protagonists as ''a kid struck by lightning, a reluctant psychic, an empath, a death-row prisoner, and an alien bounty hunter,'' foretells executive producer Chris Carter. And the Sept. 22 season opener will reveal how Mulder escaped getting blown up in a boxcar in May's cliff-hanger. Overall, Carter plans only one adjustment: ''I think we can be more clever and figure out ways to involve [the agents] without having to put them on the run or with guns to their heads.''
Despite The X-Files' success, the sci-fi shows that have preceded it at 8 p.m. (RIP, M.A.N.T.I.S. and VR.5) have had no such luck. Now Fox has Strange Luck, which hopes to capture the elusive X-Philes. ''Friday is a place where you can do an interesting, different show and not have to pull huge numbers,'' says Karl Schaefer, Strange's executive producer. The drama follows the preciously named Chance Harper (Roommates' D.B. Sweeney), who survived a plane crash as a child and now almost Fearlessly charges into a series of life-threatening circumstances. So if he, say, finds a wom an preparing to leap off a building, he jumps with her — and they live. ''It's like The Fugitive meets Route 66,'' Schaefer says. ''It's kind of a traveling angel show.''
At 10, CBS hopes X-Files fans switch to American Gothic, the season's creepiest new drama — created by former teen idol Shaun Cassidy (now, that's strange). He has a theory about why Friday-night TV is so unusual: ''You have a lot of weird people staying home,'' he says. ''And if you don't go out, you want to see something different.''
What you'll see if you do stay home: a sinister small-town sheriff (Gary Cole — Mike Brady in The Brady Bunch Movie) battling a doctor (Jake Weber) and a reporter (Paige Turco) over a 10-year-old (the eerily somber Lucas Black) who has supernatural visions and visitations from his dead sister. What you won't see: graphically violent moments such as a bludgeoning with a shovel and a neck broken by hand — scenes in the pilot that CBS wanted toned down. But blood will still spell messages, or trickle from a dead woman's eyes.
Gothic displaces a pioneer of Friday-night weirdness, Picket Fences, which moves to 9 p.m. But new executive producer Jeff Melvoin (Northern Exposure) plans to cut back on the Emmy winner's hallmark quirkiness. ''I thought the show could be more accessible,'' he says. ''The shock value stuff'' — such as previous stories involving a pregnant virgin, and a cow pregnant with a human embryo — ''I don't see us doing as much of that.''
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